CATASTROPHE: St. Louis Tornado

"For an hour before the storm struck
with lightning-like swiftness, a desultory thundershower had played
about the western horizon. There were jagged flashes of lightning,
almost incessant the continuous low rumble of thunder, interspersed
with an ominous crackling and a gathering darkness.

"A tense silence, which made people's ears ring, and a sense of
oppression heralded the coming of the tornado. There was a dull
drumming sound as of innumerable wings being flapped high in the air,
and the swirl of black dust about the sky. Then a spiral of loosely
woven...